Transportation partner personas & journey mapping

Foundational research to enhance engagement in Amazon Global Communities

Background

Amazon Global Communities (AGC) provides online forums, specialized content, and events for strategic partners in Amazon’s supply chain. Operating under a "community as product" model, AGC fosters networking, knowledge-sharing, and feedback mechanisms among members. Today, AGC operates two unique communities: Ignite for Delivery Service Providers (DSP) and Upshift for Amazon Freight Partners (AFP).

Various Amazon teams have compiled research on DSP and AFP roles, offering insights into their day-in-the-life, user journey, and persona. These resources provide an understanding of the tasks our users are responsible for in their roles, yet lack the needed layer of understanding the role that communities play in communication between Amazon-to-Members, Members-to-Amazon, and Member-to-Member.

Objectives

The goal of this project was to conduct foundational research that contextualizes each audience and highlights the critical role of communities.

Outputs from this study included customer personas and journey maps, which guided AGC stakeholders in making informed decisions about technical product features, content direction, and event programming.

What we did

This study was conducted in collaboration with the UX Research team. My role involved analyzing, synthesizing and visualizing the research findings into sharable artifacts.

Through 15 one-on-one, in-depth interviews, we were able to understand community members' needs, motivations, pain points, and defining characteristics when it comes to communication with Amazon and their peers.

Key research questions

Identifying personas

Who are my users in terms of their background, notable qualities, motivations, goals, and pain points?
What makes groups in this population distinct?
What motivates them to connect with each other and/or Amazon?
What are the communication goals of these personas

Mapping out customer journey

What are the milestones in my customers’ experience?
What role should community play for each milestone in our users’ journey?
How do my customers needs (for community) change over time?
What influences this change in experience and the corresponding need for community?

Customer journey

The journey map visually represents our customer's position, critical touch points, and influences along the process of achieving their end goal. Research shows that the ideal community member's journey culminates in a strong, trusting partnership with Amazon and a desire to connect with the broader network.

Community personas

6 community personas emerged when evaluating members’ connection to the community and their perceived sense of partnership with Amazon. Members vary in attitudes towards communication with peers and Amazon, ranging from weak to strong levels of engagement.

In the initial years of partnership, they solidify their expectations of Amazon and relationships to peers, indicating an opportunity for the community to facilitate earlier connections to unlock long-term engagement.

Member relationships evolve over time, often starting out of convenience as they rely on peers for initial decisions. Over a few years, their dependence on the network diverts based on personal motivations, such as validating shared issues or seeking mentorship. By facilitating early networking, we can support sustained community engagement and help build stronger partnerships from the start.